German Shoppers Put Price Before Quality

For a solid majority of Germans, the price of a product is the most important consideration when deciding what to purchase at the supermarket. According to the "European Consumer Study 2004," carried out by the GfK marketing research firm, 62 percent of Germans put price at the top of the list, leading the group of eight European countries polled for the survey. The thrifty Germans were followed closely, and perhaps surprisingly, by the French. In the home of haute cuisine, 60 percent said price was the most important consideration when buying groceries. Consumers in Great Britain and Spain were somewhat less price conscious; about half of Britons and Spaniards thought price trumped other qualities. Italians, on the other hand, were less reluctant to open their wallets. Only 37 percent reported price being the primary criterion for a purchase; for them, quality is the determining factor. The survey polled 9,400 consumers in Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and Spain.